My university does something similar, but it's a game that students play against each other.

Think some form of grid-based game, like tron, where each student has to program an AI.

Each semester there's a tournament, and your grade depends on how far you made it.

The finals happen live in a conference hall with a big screen, between the best players from the CS and math departments (there's a rivalry)

My year, I made it to the finals, but I tried to implement a backtracking-style search right before the finals, and then I watched from the stage as my AI instantly used all its CPU budget and crashed.

Fun times

Quoted post by Rohan Arun: x.com/RohanArun/status/2112542341059735634